


Power Play

by phoenixfawkes12



Category: Marvel (Movies), The Avengers (2012)
Genre: AU: Trailer Prompt, Dark Natasha, F/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2012-03-26
Updated: 2012-03-26
Packaged: 2017-11-02 13:47:55
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,017
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/369657
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/phoenixfawkes12/pseuds/phoenixfawkes12
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Widow does things for her own reasons</p>
            </blockquote>





	Power Play

**Author's Note:**

> This is a fill for a prompt on norsekink from October 2011 when the first Avengers Trailer came out. It asked for a story about the look that passed between Natasha and Loki. It turned into an AU Dark!Natasha/Double Agent thing. Some lines come directly from trailers and D23 footage.

Everything was going to plan. Loki smirked to himself as he was lead through the halls of SHIELD’s helicarrier. The mortals had fallen for his plan just as he intended. He had to admit, he was slightly disappointed. Thor had spoken so forcefully about the strength, the spirit and the intelligence of the mortals of Midgard. Yet they had all danced like so many puppets before Loki’s feet. So wonderfully malleable, these mortals were. Blow up a few buildings, level a city block, murder dozens of civilians and then take out a unit of elite government operatives, all while allowing himself to be “captured” at the end of it. Simply Perfect. Under his feet, Loki could feel the thrum of energy radiating off the power source he’d observed Selvig and Fury with months prior. 

He sent a small tendril of magic down his leg, through his feet, and into the Cube below and felt the answering pulse dance along his skin. A worthy master was about to present itself to the Cube. It would recognize only one. Loki intended it to be him. Fury was correct; the Cube could present its user with unlimited power. Once claimed, the Cube would answer to Loki and Loki alone. Then the world would kneel and he would reshape it to suite his own needs.

Another mortal had tried to master the cube decades previous. From what Loki had read in SHIELD’s hacked databases about the Red Skull, the man had been on the right track, yet had failed the simplest of tests. He believed himself a god. Mortals could not be Gods and therefore could not master the Cube. It was a simple and irrevocable truth, and it had cost Schmidt his chance at domination. 

They rounded a corner and proceeded towards the bowels of the carrier. Loki was surround by half a dozen armed men with weapons and his hands were bound behind his back. It amused Loki endlessly to know that these mortals thought guns and numbers would forestall him. Had they learned nothing from Thor? Hadn’t he made his way through dozens of agents in the desert using only his bare hands? And Thor had done so while trapped in the form of a mortal. The only reason they had caught Thor is because he’d allowed himself to be bound. Loki could and would destroy them with a thought. 

As they marched him onwards, Loki glanced around him, taking in his surroundings. They paraded him past a glass window with blinds hanging on the inside. Through the slats, Loki was able to make out the interior of a lab. His staff was laid out on a table and he quickly inventoried the occupants of the room.  
Stark and the recently revived super-solider seemed to be arguing, while Thor looked on in amusement. The dark form of Fury seemed to be trying to separate the two. A dark haired man in a purple shirt that Loki knew nothing of stood to the side, though if he was with the rest of the team, then he warranted a closer look at. The final person in the room was the lone female. She glanced over as he was marched by and 

briefly a look of disgust crossed her pretty features. Loki gave her the barest of nods and smirked. Most would think that she disgusted by him. Loki knew that she was disgusted for him.

The Widow was in play.  
\-----

Loki was nothing if not exceedingly patient. He’d had millenniums to do nothing but _think_. So it was that he was shoved into a cylindrical glass and steel cell. He admired the handiwork of the structure. It was well formed and extremely strong, but it was meant to cage a being of brute strength, not a master of magic. As the locks hissed closed, Fury stormed into the room (Loki believed that the man only had one gait in his walk, and that was to storm everywhere he went). 

Fury tapped the glass with a finger nail from the outside. “You try to escape; you so much as scratch that glass…” He flips a switch on the wall. The floor in front of Loki opens to reveal a plunge into the skies below. “It’s 30,000 feet, straight down, in a steel trap.” 

Loki smiles. “It’s an impressive cage, but not built for me.”

“Built for something a lot stronger than you,” Fury snaps.

Loki tilts his head to the side and continues to smirk at the SHIELD director. From his sources, he’s heard of the being known only as ‘Hulk’. Once a man, now a monster. Such poetry in motion, so much like Jekyll and Hyde. “How desperate are you to call on such lost creatures to defend you?”

Fury growls at him. “How desperate am _I_? **You** threaten my world with war. **You** talk about peace, but you kill because it’s fun…”

Loki shakes his head and interrupts. “It burns you to be so close. To have the Tesseract. To have power. And for what? A warm light for all mankind to share?” His smile fades and he stares down the man on the other side of the glass. “Allow me to show you what _real power_ is.”

Fury dismisses him with a wave of his hand. He turns and descends steel steps towards the door. “Well, you let me know if ‘Real Power’ wants a magazine or something.” 

Loki glances to the ceiling and puts two fingertips to his temple. He gives a mocking salute to the camera in the corner.  
In the nearby lab, Bruce Banner glances up from the monitor. “He really grows on you, doesn’t he?”

Thor is scowling, and for good reason. It’s Loki in there, his brother. Yet the man in that cage is so different from his Loki that it physical _hurts_. Thor wonders what Loki has endured since he fell. 

Sometimes he wonders if Loki is still falling. 

Natasha and Steve are standing around the central island in the lab, both reading over the data incoming off the weapon Loki had on him when he was captured.  
“Well, boys and girls, it’s been fun, really has, but I’m gonna be taking this beauty,” Tony walks over and lifts the curved blade from the desk, “and take it over to my workshop at Stark Tower. Tootles.” He crosses the room and bumps Steve’s shoulder as he passes.

Natasha follows him out. “I’ll go with you,” she says. Stark raises an eyebrow at her. She rolls her eyes. “Fury wants an escort on you at all times, Stark. You’re still just a consultant, and that’s SHIELD property in your hands.” 

The two argue back and forth as they walk down the hall. No one notices the small explosive device now adhered under the central island.  
\------

Loki sits and waits. He doesn’t relish the thought of a 30,000 foot drop. He’s survived dropping through deep space, but he’d rather not push his luck. He hears Stark and Natasha arguing as they walk past his holding cell. If things are going according to plan, which since it’s his plan, of course they are, then Stark’s arrogance has him walking off with Loki’s weapon and Natasha will escort him to Stark Tower.  
So he sits and counts time in his head. Ten minutes to get to the quinjet, 10 minutes to get to Stark Tower, ten more minutes for Stark to leave Widow alone as he seeks to unlock the secrets of the weapon. Once 30 minutes exactly has passed Loki leans forward and listens for the first sounds of his imminent escape.

In the lab, Bruce looks over his shoulder at Thor. “Does anyone else think he looks way too comfortable in there?” The door opens and Dr. Selvig enters, clutching the briefcase that the Cosmic Cube resides in. Steve glances over at the doctor.

“Dr. Selvig, what can we do for you?” The older astrophysicist looks agitated. He’s sweating, twitching and looking around the room. Steve slowly starts forward. The doctor’s demeanor reminds him of a skittish child caught doing something wrong. Steve tries again “Dr. Selvig?” Bruce and Thor are now stopping their viewing of Loki’s cell and turning around. 

Thor intercepts the doctor, placing his hands on the smaller man’s shoulders. “Erik? You must tell me what is wrong. Has something happened? Where is Jane?”

At the mention of Jane’s name, Selvig’s face crumples. “I think…I think I may have hurt her. She didn’t want me to take the case. She was yelling at me. So I made her stop yelling before anyone came to look.” Thor sidesteps the scientist and runs out the door towards Jane’s lab on the lower levels of the carrier. 

Erik is weeping openly now. “I had to take the case and come here,” he pleads with Steve. “You have to understand. I don’t have any choice. _You have to understand!_. When…when I look…in the mirror…it’s not my face that looks back at me. It’s _his_. I’m a prisoner in my own head. “

Bruce is moving behind the doctor and Steve steps forward. “Dr. Selvig, please give me the cube case.” Erik shakes his head widely back and forth. “No! I told you! I have to bring it here. Why don’t you listen? He’s coming to get it!”

Steve continues to move forward. “Who, Dr.? Who is coming for the cube?” Erik goes perfectly still. He closes his eyes, then reopens them, and Steve recoils. The doctor’s eyes have changed to a very distinct shade of green. He smiles.

“Loki.”

\--------

Bruce darts forward and grabs the scientist’s arm. Steve lunges for the case. The lab explodes around them. Steve dives to the side, while Bruce and Selvig are tossed backwards through the glass window. Before Steve’s eyes, Bruce screams and rapidly starts to swell in size, turning green. The mild mannered gamma radiation specialist is replaced by the massive Hulk.  
Hulk roars at Steve, turns and rips open a section of nearby wall. The lights flicker before power is completely lost, plunging the lab into semi-darkness, only emergency lighting flickering. Steve can still hear the sounds of the Hulk rampaging down the corridors as he encounters SHIELD personnel. As he pulls himself to his knees, he becomes aware of another pair of footsteps. Calm, measured, seemingly unhurried amongst the chaos. 

Steve’s vision swims and his hearing fades in and out, his ears full of ringing noises. Black boots enter his field of vision. Loki crouches down on his heels next to Steve’s head, the cube case clutched in one hand. He sets the case just out of Steve’s reach. He runs a hand through Steve’s blond hair, making a soft humming sound. He tries to jerk his head away, but Loki grabs his chin in an iron grip. If Steve tries to yank his head again, he’s going to end up with a broken jaw. 

Loki continues to use his free hand to stroke Steve’s hair and face. Finally Loki rotates his head so they’re face-to-face. The God of Mischief seems almost serene amongst the chaos of the lab. “Did you think your cell would hold me? Glass and steel hold no sway over magic and will. I am not some leashed pet like Thor has become. _I am a God, Steve Rogers_. And it is high time that you and yours were reminded of that fact.”

He releases Steve’s face and stands. “So sorry we can’t spend more time together, but I have places to be, weapons to reclaim and people to kill. You know how it is, so much to do, not nearly enough time.” Loki lifts the cube case and crosses the lab to face the mirrored wall there, some panels still intact despite the explosion. He touches one and the surface ripples like water.  
Steve struggles to his feet, swaying as the room tilts dangerously. He takes one, then two more shaky steps towards the wayward God. “They’ll stop you, Tony and Natasha. You’ll never get through both of them.” 

Now Loki actually _laughs_ at him. “Oh, my darling captain. Stark is just a man in a suit, as you said. Take that all away and he is nothing but a mortal man. And mortal forms are so easily crushed. As for the dear Widow…well, Captain Rogers. How do you think I got all of the information on this? Selvig knew of the cube, yet it was lovely Natasha who provided me with the specifics of SHIELD and its databases.” 

The utter betrayal on Steve’s face sends Loki into more peals of laughter. “You believe that all humans are as pure as you, their motives clear. You were made to be ruled, and in the end, it’s every man for himself. Natasha just realized that quicker than the rest of you and decided to, how do you say, back the winning horse.” 

Sounds of a struggle start to reach Steve’s ears. He can hear yelling and thinks he hears Thor bellow “Brother.” Loki gives Steve a formal court bow, straightens, and steps through the mirror just as Thor reaches the lab door. An arrow shots from over Thor’s shoulder, smashing the mirror into dozens of pieces. Clint swears from behind Thor. Coulson ducks under Thor’s arms and helps support Steve back down to the floor as he checks him over for injuries. 

“We need to contact Stark Tower. Loki’s headed there for his weapon.” Coulson seems unconcerned as he applies pressure to a variety of wounds up and down Steve’s arms. “Agent Romanoff is with Stark. I’m sure he’ll be fine until we can get down there.” Steve turns and grips the other agent’s arm. “That’s exactly what I’m afraid of. We have a traitor inside SHIELD.”  
\------

Tony hums excitedly to himself. He’s a genius so it’s rare to have a true problem present itself to him. Need to escape a madman in a cave in the desert? He did that with a box of scraps. Successfully privatize world peace? Yeah, he’s got that. Rediscover and synthesize a brand new element so he doesn’t die? He did that overnight. Unlock the secrets of an alien race using reverse engineering on a weapon? Oh, it’s a challenge. He’s practically vibrating with ideas and energy to start working. His mind is reeling off on multiple options and angles for testing. 

He leaves Natasha upstairs with a laptop when she says she needs to work on SHIELD security protocols as he skips to the lab. He’s not in there more than 10 minutes when JARVIS interrupts him. “Sir, there seems to be something wrong with my internal safety settings.”

Tony doesn’t even glance up. “Run diagnostic, and then fix the issue. You don’t need me for that JARVIS. Now be quiet, Daddy’s working.”

“But, Sir, the diagnostic says the security threat is being introduced via Agent Romanoff’s computer.” This does get Tony’s attention. “JARVIS? Repeat that.” 

“Sir…sir…security breach…sir…virus…” The AI’s voice is garbled, confused and suddenly silent. Tony swears and crosses the lab towards the Iron Man suit. He’s almost there when a pistol pushes into the back of his head. He stops and doesn’t even need to look behind him to know who is holding the gun. “Natasha.” 

The Black Widow moves to the side and into Tony’s field of vision. “Please come with me, Mr. Stark.” Using the pistol like a cattle prod, she herds Stark upstairs towards the living room, now with Loki’s weapon clutched in her free hand. Tony does nothing quietly, so he says: “I’m assuming when you said you were working on SHIELD security protocols, you were rewriting them for your own use, then?” She says nothing, simply smiles her soft, knowing smile. They cross into the living area, and Tony stops in surprise. Natasha moves around him, gun still in her hand and sits down next to the new figure in the room. She hands him the weapon.

Loki is sitting on his sofa, with his feet on the coffee table, drinking what appears to be Tony’s Ridiculously Expensive Scotch. He raises his glass in greeting then leans forward and pushes a second glass towards Tony. “Please, Mr. Stark, have a seat, won’t you?” Tony tries not to think about the irony of being served his own liquor in his own tower in favor of wondering what the God of Mischief is doing in his living room. He crosses the room and sits in the offered chair across from Loki.

The God smirks. “I just needed to stop by and retrieve my property. It’s not nice, Mr. Stark, to take things that don’t belong to you. I imagine SHIELD is on its way to attempt to ‘bring me in.’ I’ve no plans to see that happen.” He stands and Natasha moves to follow him.

Tony leans forward in his chair. “Let’s do a headcount: a world class assassin, a demigod, a living legend who actually lives up to the legend, and you, big fella! You’ve managed to piss off every single one of them!”  
Loki snarls and leans down, face to face with Stark. “I have an army!”

Stark smiles back at the enraged God. “We have a Hulk.” 

Loki takes a deep breath then smiles at Tony. “It won’t be enough. You will not save the Earth. This world belongs to me.” 

Tony stands. “If we can’t save the Earth, you can be damn sure we’ll avenge it.” Loki strikes out, his hand wrapping around Tony’s throat. “Well, they’ll have to do it without you.” He thrusts out his arm, sending Stark backwards out the living room window and sending him plunging down towards the street below. Loki doesn’t stop to see if he impacts the ground or if something intervenes on Stark’s behalf. He has work to do. Natasha follows him to the entrance hall and then through the mirror there. He plans keep her around a while longer. 

She is extremely useful, for a mortal.


End file.
